Luke held up an arm in front of Mateo's chest. "This time, we stay hidden until the others are done."

  "I have a bad feeling about this," Milla said.

  "You're not the only one," Luke said, nodding to Emma, Abraham, and Penny, gesturing for them to scale the trees again.

  The four of them, still on the ground, watched while the others climbed. That large group seemed to have two leaders. One wore plate armor, with a shield on his back and a sword in a sheath at his hip. Blue plumes on the top of his helmet rippled in the air. The other one was an older man in robes and a long white beard. A mage. He had to be.

  Luke narrowed his eyes. Was that a quarterstaff the mage was holding?

  From this distance, they couldn't inspect their opponents, but if they were anything like the defenders in the outpost, inspect wouldn't work either way. Luke wondered what that meant as he watched the scene in front of them unfold.

  "There are a lot of them," he said, keeping his voice low.

  Right behind the leader stood a group of twelve armored men. Twenty or so spearmen stood at loose attention around the field of battle, with a group of archers bringing up the rear. Mages trudged around the field of battle, checking dead bodies, searching for the gem, Luke figured. What would they make of seeing all those corpses, and no gem?

  Nymh: "We have reached the outpost, but lost Longstrider and several others to the Deep Dweller. It seemed... agitated. Liza informed me she's left the dungeon, so I need an update from everyone who receives this message."

  "Poor Longstrider," Milla said. "He was so excited about the model railway he had just bought. Now he's never going to see those trains run."

  Luke gave Nymh a rundown of events since they parted, including their retrieval of the gem and what was about to happen.

  Penny: "Now!"

  Nymh: "We're coming."

  They launched their combined attack. Abraham's bombs didn't make a sound when they launched. Even the twang of Emma's bow was louder, and the leaves rustling in the wind were enough to obscure Penny's chanting.

  Before the bombs were even close to landing, the mage leader's face snapped up into the air, and he pointed with a long, bony finger. Barriers sprang up, much larger this time, in a deep, translucent blue. The bombs hit their targets, but this time the shields held. Most of them. One bomb exploded in the middle of the common troops, and the other among the archers. Each attack obliterated large groups of enemies.

  Penny's lightning didn't hit at random points this time. Instead, the bolts focused on a single point, striking it again and again. Each attack thrummed into the barrier erected by the mage leader, crashing down with enough force that Luke felt the impact way back in the patch of forest. But no matter how many times lightning struck, the barrier held.

  "That's not good," Milla whispered.

  Luke shook his head. "It's not."

  Emma's arrows followed. She, too, aimed for the mages. All of them flew true toward their targets, and all of them met barriers. Either Emma's arrows carried more weight than Penny's spells, or the other mages lacked power compared to the old man. Several barriers broke. A few mages cried out, but most of those hit died in an instant. The horses whinnied and jumped a little, but none of them fled.

  Their ambush took the forces by surprise, but far more than half remained standing, and Abraham's bullets, following the arrows, only killed a handful of archers. By then, the mages had erected even more barriers.

  Following the surprise attack, an expectant silence hung in the air, like everyone was holding their collective breath, then the old man raised both hands over his head.

  Luke felt pressure in his chest, and he swallowed hard as he followed the intricate threads making up a spell being cast. Even at a distance, there was no denying its shape and complexity. With no hope of following what the man was doing, Luke muttered, "He's casting a spell."

  "What kind of spell?" Milla asked.

  "I don't know," Luke said. "But I don't like it."

  Once the pattern of the spell was set in place, the old man clapped his hands together over his head, and a ripple passed through the air, expanding outward in a circle, covering everything and everyone.

  "Do you see that?" Luke asked.

  Curtis grunted. "We see it."

  It was fast. So fast, in fact, that no one had time to react. Luke glimpsed threads in the wave of force coming their way, distorting the air as it went. After that, he flinched and held up his arms to protect his face.

  The spell passed right by them, doing no damage whatsoever.

  "Huh," Luke said.

  "We are still here, my friends," Mateo said, touching himself all over. "Was this not a killing spell?"

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  "Uh oh," Milla said.

  Luke turned to her. "What?"

  She pointed at the old man. The old man was staring right at them, pointing in their direction.

  "That's not good," Luke said, as the soldiers, knights, and many of the mages rode in their direction, while the archers fanned out.

  "They will be here in less than a minute," Curtis said, retrieving the sword from his inventory.

  Penny: "What do we do?"

  Curtis: "Fire at them. They know where we are, so there's no running now."

  Abraham: "Roger that."

  The sound of Abraham's machine gun cut through the air, raining death on the small approaching army. Arrows from Emma joined in, but Penny climbed back down.

  "I'm better on the ground," she explained as the enemies drew near.

  Mateo took a few steps back, looked around, and found a solid tree trunk, which he walked up to, positioning himself behind it and to the left. He gestured for the others to do the same. "We are outnumbered! Cunning must join raw strength if we are to live through this glorious moment!"

  "Good thinking," Luke said, moving next to a trunk himself just as an arrow buried itself into a tree nearby.

  More followed, then even more.

  Without a tank in the group, their only option was to seek shelter among the trees, biding their time. Unfortunately, this tactic soon proved too optimistic. The treetops above them exploded with fire, and burning leaves rained to the ground.

  Milla let out a shriek and covered her head.

  Abraham: "I'm fine!"

  Emma: "Me too."

  Luke: "The mages! We have to get the mages! Focus on the old man!"

  Emma: "I'm trying!"

  To her credit, even through the blazing inferno, those massive arrows of hers never stopped, but they weren't even making a dent in the old man's barrier.

  "That's going to be an issue," Curtis said, nodding toward the end of the patch of forest, where the knights and other warriors were dismounting, readying themselves to go in.

  "At least that means the spells and arrows will stop," Milla breathed, a smile full of hope on her face.

  Luke shook his head and moved out of the way of a falling branch. "No. More spells are coming."

  Most mages were casting spells. Weavesense showed the patterns, but that told Luke little about what to expect. Reading the intent behind the different symbols was beyond him at this point.

  Luke: "Change of plans. Focus on the other mages! Reduce their numbers. I'll try to deal with the old man!"

  Abraham: "But you're a healer, aren't you?!"

  "Here they come," Curtis said, his voice calm, but with a hint of fire. The bastard was eager. This was what he wanted.

  Luke shook his head and took his eyes off the spells being cast, turning his attention to the coming knights and foot soldiers. Some knights carried swords and shields, but a sort of axe on a long haft seemed to be their preferred choice. At least they left their lances with the horses. The common soldiers used spears for the most part. Some of them were making their way around the small forested area, attempting to surround the group.

  Luke: "Nymh? Are you getting close? We could really use the help!"

  Nymh: "Having some trouble finding the right way!"

  An arrow slammed into a mage at the far back of the group, ripping through his barrier before continuing through his shoulder without slowing down. It left a large hole behind, too big for anyone to survive.

  Luke: "Good Emma, more of that!"

  The injured mage took a half step forward, his knees buckling, but something invisible reached out and propped him up as a green-tinted glow surrounded his shoulder.

  "He's being healed," Milla breathed. "Who's doing that?"

  Luke had seen the pattern forming and pointed. "That one," Luke said.

  Luke: "Emma! Aim for the mage with the long red hair! The guy with the broken nose!"

  "Here they come," Curtis said, stepping out from behind the trunk of the tree to face the coming knights.

  Penny reached forward with the palm of her hand.

  Gather, tighten, sharpen, fall,

  Storm's own spear, heed my call!

  Pierce the dark, through flesh and bone,

  Lightning’s wrath is mine alone!

  A thick arc of lightning streaked from her hand, striking right in the chest of the knight at the front with a loud thump, but the spell reached its target without doing much at all. It reached around the armor, crackling as it dissipated without damaging the knight. They all approached unharmed, their leader walking at their head.

  Curtis met him with a roar, swinging his huge sword overhead with tremendous force. The knights wore helmets covering their faces, but Luke sensed mirth from the nonchalant way the leader stepped to the side, dodging the blade with ease to slam his tall shield into chest.

  Rather than being pushed back, Curtis put his sword back into his inventory, grabbed the shield, and yanked, stepping back to add forward momentum. The knight’s leader let out a yelp. He stumbled forward, his armor clanking as he fell to the ground.

  Luke looked away from their fight to focus on a group of soldiers charging into the forest, screaming at the top of their lungs, spears held out in front of them. An onslaught of bullets rained almost straight down from the tree above. Abraham destroyed the soldiers in seconds.

  More knights joined the fray, but Mateo was there in an instant, circling around them, stabbing with his spear, finding weak points in their armor, drawing blood before dancing back and out of reach.

  "Sting like a bee," he shouted.

  More soldiers approached from the field behind the group, and Penny turned her attention to them.

  Crackle, scatter, sear and sweep!

  Storm-wrath, strike the ones who creep!

  Fall before my thunder’s roar,

  Lightning claims the weak once more!

  Lightning worked just fine on those men, and most were dead after her first attack.

  Luke was about to set off running. He wanted to skirt around the knights to reach the old mage. Several soldiers and other mages guarded him, but if they didn’t deal with the head mage, they’d never see themselves through this. Unfortunately, he found himself stuck. When he tried to lift his foot, the underbrush held him down, and even as he tried to get away, he saw branches wrapping themselves around his legs, climbing upward. He cursed, but didn’t lose his focus. This was a spell. He could deal with spells.

  Threads of Mana, with Needle of Life, cut through the branches and vines at the base, near the ground, disabling the attack. He did the same for Milla, who'd also been snared, then turned to resume his own attack. Curtis slammed into a tree trunk right next to Luke and coughed up blood.

  The leader of the knights approached. Luke put a hand on his shoulder. Curtis had been run through, pierced straight through the stomach. His face was white. The man wouldn't last much longer. The knight leader was just too strong. In this injured state, the fight would end with the next exchange of blows.

  Luke ignored the advancing knight, rushing in to heal his friend. Seconds. That was all the time he had to accomplish this next task before they'd be overrun. Mere seconds.